baccanofandomcom-20200223-history
Larolf Hancletia
Larolf Hancletia (ラローフ・ハンクレティア Rarōfu Hankuretia) is Lotto Valentino's former Chief of City Police. His brief time in office lasted for less than a year, ending with his arrest as the leader of a quashed citizens' revolt in 1705. Personality Larolf is a man who values his 'sense of security' and stands with the commoners who enable him over moralistic decency, willing to go so far as to allow the purchase and use of slave children and kill those children himself for his and the commoners' own benefit. He possesses no true loyalty to Lotto Valentino's aristocrats and merchants. Chronology 1705 In the summer of 1705, the City Police of Lotto Valentino are accused of rampant corruption in a public newsletter éxpose, with the inquiry leading to the Police Chief's resignation. Larolf takes over the position in the wake of the fabricated corruption scandal, and thus also takes over the City Police investigation into the Mask Maker serial killer. As part of his investigation, he personally listens to the testimony of Niki, a slave girl who claimed to have witnessed the Mask Maker in action. In accordance with his new role, he pays a personal visit to the manor of the city governor, Count Esperanza C. Boroñal in order to formally introduce himself. He initially assumes that Esperanza will be just another 'eccentric aristocrat' based on his outlandish appearance, but Esperanza surprises him by speaking clearly and sanely. On the topic of the Mask Maker, however, Esperanza becomes incensed; after ranting about his adulation of women, he rages that he will never forgive someone who has been killing little girls and asks Larolf to protect everyone in in the city. Larolf, intimidated and alarmed by the Count's passion, interprets this as a threat and takes his leave of the manor with haste. The next day, Larolf returns and interrupts Esperanza's conversation with Niki to inform him that another victim of a Mask Maker has been found. His reassurance that the latest victim is a boy backfires, with Esperanza grabbing him by his chin and reminding him that there are still multiple reasons for a Governor to worry even if a victim is male. Esperanza releases him only because of Niki's presence, and Larolf, upon seeing her, asks what she is doing in such a place. Esperanza expresses his surprise upon seeing that the two are familiar with each other, and when Niki runs away, grabs Larolf once more and accuses him of having done something to cause Niki's ire. Larolf protests, explaining that Niki is a witness to the Mask Makers' crimes. He adds that the boy who was recently murdered was also witness to the Mask Maker themself. Three days after Niki's arrival at the manor, Larolf orders his men to retrieve all the students of The Third Library as well as its headmaster, Dalton Strauss. The same day, he travels by carriage to the manor with the intent of retrieving Niki herself, only to spot her running down an otherwise deserted street in his direction. He exits the carriage and grabs her by the arm, reintroducing himself to her and remarking on her 'impeccable timing'; as he explains, he and his men had already been on their way to pick her up, with a prepared excuse that they needed her to testify once more. Once Niki is situated between two officers inside the now-moving carriage, bound and gagged, Larolf – sitting opposite – admits that he had been shocked when he saw her at the Boroñal manor, and afterward had investigated commonalities between the victims. Alluding to Niki's status as a nameless slave, he asks if Niki had approached Esperanza intending to make her 'existence' known to the world, if she had thought that Esperanza would be strong enough to pressure the police. Irritated by the assumption, he demands to know how the police – an organization for the common people – is meant to protect said commoners if they fear the power of aristocrats. Lowering his voice, Larolf reminds Niki that the common people he protects are the same people who desire her very death. He notes that Niki does not seem to have confessed everything to Esperanza, but that it would not have mattered anyway; in a deliberately threatening tone, he states that he will hand Niki over to where she belongs and have her reveal the Mask Maker's identity, and afterwards have her killed. It is his intention that the crimes of the commoners will be attributed to the Mask Maker. Eventually they reach their destination, and Larolf drags Niki to a warehouse where several commoners familiar to her have all gathered. After being threatened, Niki rages about the way she and her fellow drug workshop slaves were treated, leading one of the commoners to assume that she and the other children created the identity of the Mask Maker out of their own insanity. Larolf takes over the interrogation (both verbal and physical), again asserting that he will kill her after she confesses who the other Mask Maker children were. Niki counters that the Mask Maker is real, as opposed to being one of the slave children, cursing all present. Larolf concedes that while he knows someone who wears a mask – someone who gave him and the others an 'alloy' and ordered the production of counterfeits – he does not believe that person to be the Mask Maker. According to Larolf, he and the commoners needed the drugs circulating the city as a 'safety device' against the aristocrats and merchants: a sense of security. They bought the slave children to make the drugs in order to shift any potential blame off their own shoulders. Larolf is about to smash Niki's face in with his truncheon when her master bursts into the room, shouting that the drug workshop is on fire. He and the others rush outside to investigate the burning ship, leaving the master with Niki, and join up with various tool-wielding commoners at the harbor – only for Esperanza to lead a cavalry charge in their direction, from the opposite end of the street. The commoners are anxious but not overly alarmed, since they are carrying tools rather than weapons, but a gunshot from an unknown source is all that Esperanza needs to declare that the citizens are officially rioting. As a result, the commoners have no other choice but to surrender. Larolf is arrested as the leader of the rebellion. Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:1700s Characters Category:Mortals